Still, queer bars, clubs, bathhouses, bookstores and community centers held fundraisers and served as sites of support. During the worst years, an HIV-positive diagnosis, or even just getting tested for the virus, could disclose a person's sexuality - and probably not on one's own terms - and render gay people vulnerable to violence and prejudice. The United States greeted the HIV/AIDS epidemic with apathy and even hostility. That community mourned and mobilized with resilience, despite authorities' lack of motivation to investigate and bring justice to the fallen. Gay bars and clubs could be the sites of great violence: One of the lesser known physical attacks occurred at a New Orleans gay bar in 1973, when an arsonist lighted up the UpStairs Lounge, which took the lives of 32 people.
The very idea of a refuge has historically been contested and, at best, tenuous for LGBT people.
